Daddy's Little Princess
by Reading Redhead
Summary: A seven-year-old girl living during the Great Depression asks if she can be a princess, and gets a better explanation than anyone expected. One-shot; complete.


Disclaimer: I don't own the Bible.  Does anyone?  All the verses I've quoted are from my NIV translation.

A/N: This story is the fault of one of my friends and a t-shirt I saw today.  But it's mostly the friend's fault.  He thinks I research my writing too much, so he challenged me to write a story about a young girl living during the Great Depression without researching anything.  I had just taken the challenge as a joke, and wasn't intending on actually writing anything, but this story presented itself and I knew I had to write it.  If anything is historically incorrect, that's because I _didn't_ research anything.  Please read and review; I appreciate all comments. 

Daddy's Little Princess

            "Daddy, will you read to me?" Mae questioned expectantly, her favorite book in her hands.

            Her father looked down wearily.  All that he wanted to do was rest; he needed to be up early the next morning for work, and he needed to go to work, despite the fact that he earned barely anything.  Not that it was any different in other families.  The Great Depression had hit America like an anvil, plunging every corner of the country into disrepair.

            His wife gave him a stern look from the next room.  She was a strong woman.  She had to be, to have raised Mae for the past seven years with very little help from him.  She told him that she understood he needed to work, but he knew that his wife felt he should spend more time with his daughter.

            He looked back down at Mae, who was smiling, her blue eyes shining and blonde curls bobbing as she bounced up and down on the balls of her feet.  Somehow, throughout all of this, she had remained bright and optimistic.  He marveled at her innocence, wishing that he could have the same insulation against the cruelty of the world.

            "Just one story," he said, but before he could finish, Mae squealed happily and gave him a hug.  He let himself be led by Mae to the couch, her little hand tightly gripping his.  As soon as he sat down, Mae scrambled up and sat on top of him.  It was uncomfortable, and he was in a mind to ask her to move, but a look at her bright blue eyes stopped him.  Let her have this semblance of peace.  It wouldn't last much longer, at the rate things were going.

            Mae gave him the book, then grew silent as he read.  He recognized the book as one Mae had been given for learning to read almost three years ago.  It told a story of a princess who lived in the tallest tower of a castle by the sea.  As he read, he found himself almost believing the tale, wanting there to be a world of princesses and dragons and unicorns that he could escape to.

            But he knew that that was an idle hope.  He read the last page of the book, and closed it, setting it beside him on the couch.  Mae was still sitting in his lap, but before he could ask her to please get up, she looked at him, small brow furrowed.

            "Daddy," she said with curiosity, "could _I_ be a princess?"

            He didn't know what to say.  "You're always my little princess, sweetie," he answered evasively, hoping to clear things up without breaching the touchy subject of reality.

            Mae stayed put.  "That's not what I mean, Daddy," she said.  "I mean like a _real_ princess."

            He had hoped it would not need to come to this.  He didn't want to crush his daughter's hopes, but neither did he want to inflate them.  Settling on the truth, he finally said, "I'm sorry, honey.  You can't be a princess like that."

            Mae got up off his lap.  "Oh," was all she said.  Looking at her eyes, her father saw that their light had dimmed.

            Her mother's voice came from behind them.  She must have come into the room at the end of the story.  "Nonsense, dear," she said to her husband.  "Mae _is_ a princess."

            Mae looked at her mother, confused.  Her father wore much the same expression.  But her mother knew what she was talking about.  She strode confidently over to the mantle, and took the family bible down from it.  Opening to one of the many bookmarked pages, she read aloud.

            " 'How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!  And that is what we are.'  That's from first John."

            Mae looked at her mother, who was too busy flipping a few pages back to see the look of puzzlement her daughter gave her.  " 'Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.'  From the gospel of John this time."

            She flipped through the pages to a final verse.  " 'I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.'  Second Corinthians."  She looked at her husband.  "Do you understand?"

            He nodded, a small smile gracing his face where none had rested in a long time.

            "_I_ don't understand," Mae said indignantly.

            Her mother smiled, setting the bible back on the mantle and walking over to sit next to her husband.  She pulled Mae up onto her lap.

            "You wanted to be a princess," she said.  "You already are.  You are a daughter of God, because he loves you and because you have taken him into your heart.  You are a daughter of the King."  Her smile widened.  "Isn't that what a princess is?"

            Mae sat for a moment, thinking.  Then a smile to match her parents' broke out on her face.  "Does this mean I can live in a castle?  And wear a tiara?"

            Her mother chuckled.  "We'll see, Mae," she said.  "We'll see."


End file.
